Lyle Hughes

Lyle Hughes (1806-) was an American bank teller from Tucumcari, New Mexico who was best-known for his foiling of an 1873 robbery of the First National Bank & Trust of Tucumcari by Blake Wood.

Biography
Lyle Hughes settled near Algodones in Hanman County, New Mexico during the mid-19th century, becoming a teller at the First National Bank & Trust of Tucumcari. The bank had been founded as the First National Bank & Trust, but the wife of the founder suggested that it add "of Tucumcari" to distinguish it from other banks of the same name, although its location in the middle of the loneliest and barest patch of earth in the lonely county was distinction enough. The bank was visited by depositors from Valverde, Chloride, and Tucumcari, and there was even once a run on the bank. The Marshal usually visited the bank once a month to ensure that things were running smoothly. One time, a French-American outlaw by the name of Chevilly attempted to rob the bank, but Hughes shot him in the leg with a scattergun and left him disabled; Chevilly was taken into custody and forced to break rocks near Yuma. In 1873, the lone outlaw Blake Wood entered the bank and chatted with Hughes before pointing a gun at him through the window and forcing him to hand over all of the cash. Hughes bent down, ostensibly to grab the cash, but he instead fired a series of shotgun traps as he fled behind the bank and put on a suit of pots and pans as armor. Hughes then chased Wood outside and charged him, and all of Wood's shots hit the pans, causing Hughes to shout "pan-shot" each time. Hughes then got close enough to bash Wood over the head with the butt of his shotgun, knocking him out and leaving him for the law to capture.